Procuring Cloud Services from Government eMarketplace (GeM) · Procuring Cloud Services from Government eMarketplace (GeM) Handbook Version 1.0 Ministry of Electronics & Information

Procuring Cloud Services from Government eMarketplace

(GeM)

Handbook

Version 1.0

Ministry of Electronics

& Information Tech.,

Government of India

Handbook for procuring Cloud services from GeM Version 1.0

Cloud Management Office Page 2 of 36

Table of Contents

1. Purpose .................................................................................................................................................................... 3

2. GFR guidelines for procurement through Government eMarketplace (GeM) platform .................................. 4

3. Cloud Services Bouquet .......................................................................................................................................... 5

4. Guidelines for procuring Cloud services from GeM ............................................................................................ 6

4.1. Direct Purchase of Cloud Services .................................................................................................................... 8

4.2. L1 Purchase of Cloud Services ......................................................................................................................... 12

4.3. Bid Process for Cloud Services ........................................................................................................................ 16

4.4. Reverse Auction for Cloud Services ................................................................................................................ 21

5. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs).................................................................................................................... 26

5.1. FAQs - Direct Purchase ................................................................................................................................... 26

5.2. FAQs – L1 Purchase ......................................................................................................................................... 27

5.3. FAQs – Bid Process ......................................................................................................................................... 28

5.4. FAQs – Reverse Auction .................................................................................................................................. 33

5.5. FAQs – Other ................................................................................................................................................... 35



1. Purpose

This handbook has been prepared to assist government organizations in procuring Cloud services

through the Government eMarketplace (GeM) platform. The GeM platform provides four different

modes of procurement - Direct Purchase, L1 Purchase, Bid and Reverse Auction. This handbook

provides step by step guide for procuring Cloud services using these four modes. This handbook also

provides a list of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) related to the procurement of Cloud services

through the GeM platform.



2. GFR guidelines for procurement through Government

eMarketplace (GeM) platform

Rule 149 of the General Financial Rules (GFRs) 2017 states that “the Procurement of Goods and

Services by Ministries or Departments will be mandatory for Goods or Services available on GeM. The

credentials of suppliers on GeM shall be certified by GeM SPV. The procuring authorities will certify

the reasonability of rates. The GeM portal shall be utilized by the Government buyers for direct on-line

purchases as under:-

(i) Up to Rs.25,000 through any of the available suppliers on the GeM, meeting the requisite

quality, specification and delivery period

(ii) Above Rs.25,000 and up to Rs.5,00,000 through the GeM Seller having lowest price amongst

the available sellers (excluding Automobiles where current limit of 30 lakh will continue), of at

least three different manufacturers, on GeM, meeting the requisite quality, specification and

delivery period. The tools for online bidding and online reverse auction available on GeM can

be used by the Buyers even for procurements less than Rs 5,00,000.

(iii) Above Rs.5,00,000 through the supplier having lowest price meeting the requisite quality,

specification and delivery period after mandatorily obtaining bids, using online bidding or

reverse auction tool provided on GeM (excluding Automobiles where current limit of 30 lakh

will continue).

(iv) The invitation for the online ebidding/reverse auction will be available to all the existing Sellers

or other Sellers registered on the portal and who have offered their goods/services under the

particular product/service category, as per terms and conditions of GeM.

(v) The above mentioned monetary ceiling is applicable only for purchases made through GeM. For

purchases, if any, outside GeM, relevant GFR Rules shall apply.

(vi) The Ministries/Departments shall work out their procurement requirements of Goods and

Services on either “OPEX” model or “CAPEX” model as per their requirement/ suitability at the

time of preparation of Budget Estimates (BE) and shall project their Annual Procurement Plan

of goods and services on GeM portal within 30 days of Budget approval.

(vii) The Government Buyers may ascertain the reasonableness of prices before placement of order

using the Business Analytics (BA) tools available on GeM including the Last Purchase Price on

GeM, Department’s own Last Purchase Price etc.

(viii) A demand for goods shall not be divided into small quantities to make piecemeal purchases to

avoid procurement through L-1 Buying / bidding / reverse auction on GeM or the necessity of

obtaining the sanction of higher authorities required with reference to the estimated value of

the total demand.



3. Cloud Services Bouquet

MeitY has prepared a bouquet of Cloud services that classifies services in two broad categories - “Basic

Cloud Services” and “Advanced Cloud Services”. The Cloud services listed under the “Basic Cloud

Services” are mandatory for all CSPs to offer to the government organizations under at least one of the

empaneled Cloud Deployment Models. However, the Cloud services listed under the “Advanced Cloud

Services” category are optional for the CSPs to offer.

CSPs can list their individual Cloud services on the GeM platform once they have been successfully

empaneled by the MeitY. If a CSP wants to list Cloud services, which are not covered under the Cloud

Services Bouquet, the CSP needs to follow the due process specified by MeitY to get its services first

empaneled with MeitY under the “Advanced Cloud Services”.

While listing their Cloud services on the GeM platform, CSPs will be required to classify their Cloud

services into one of the three service models – Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service

(PaaS) and Software as a Service (SaaS) – based on the controls identified and defined by MeitY in its

Cloud Services Empanelment RFP.

The bouquet of Cloud services have been provided to the Government eMarketplace (GeM) which is

onboarding MeitY authorized Cloud services on its platform. The “Basic Cloud Services” include Virtual

Machines, Storage (Block, Object, File and Archival), Managed Databases, Load Balancers, VPN,

Firewall, Public IP, Identify and Access Management, Web Application Firewall, etc. The “Advanced

Cloud Services” include Containers, Managed Databased (not covered under “Basic Cloud Services”),

Database Licenses, Content Delivery Network, MPLS Connectivity (Port Charges), Hardware Security

Module, Distributed Denial of Services Protection, TLS / SSL Certificate Management, Dual /

Multifactor Authentication, Log Analysis, Operational Metric Collection, Alarm Service, Notification

Service, Office Productivity Suit, Streaming Service, Massive Data Processing Service, Data

Warehousing Service, IoT Service, etc. The details of these services can be seen by visiting the Cloud

Services Bouquet which is available at http://meity.gov.in/content/gi-cloud-meghraj.

http://meity.gov.in/content/gi-cloud-meghraj



4. Guidelines for procuring Cloud services from GeM

Government organizations can procure Cloud services either through the GeM Marketplace or through

the Bid Process / Reverse Auction (RA) functionality available on the GeM platform based on the total

procurement value of the Cloud services. The following table lists various procurement modes available

to government organizations based on the total procurement value of the Cloud services.

Procurement Value Procurement Condition Procurement Modes

Available on GeM

Up to Rs. 25 Thousand

The Cloud services can be

procured from any of the MeitY

empaneled Cloud Service

Providers who is available on

the GeM and meets the

requisite quality, specification

and delivery period

requirements of the

government organization.

Direct Purchase

L1 Purchase

Bid Process

Reverse Auction

Above Rs. 25 Thousand

and up to Rs. 5 Lakh


procured from a MeitY


Provider which offers lowest

price amongst at least three

different MeitY empaneled

Cloud Service Providers

offering the same service on

GeM and meets the requisite

quality, specification and

delivery period requirements of

the government. The tools for

online bidding and online

reverse auction available on

GeM can also be used by the

government organization if

decided by the competent

authority.

L1 Purchase

Bid Process

Reverse Auction

Above Rs. 5 Lakh


procured from a MeitY


Provider which offers lowest

price meeting the requisite

quality, specification and

delivery period requirements of

government organizations,

after mandatorily obtaining

Bid Process

Reverse Auction



bids, using online bidding or

reverse auction tool provided

on GeM.



4.1. Direct Purchase of Cloud Services

Direct Purchase of Cloud services can be done by following the steps mentioned in the diagram below.

Log in to the GeM portal

Public CloudVirtual Private

Cloud

Govt. Community

Cloud

Click Shop by Category

Go to Cloud Services Module

Select the Cloud Deployment Model

Specify the Contract Dates

Contract End Date

Users can view the Service Details and Service Level Agreements

Provide consignee details

Click on the Select Consignees link

Specify Number / Quantity / Unit of

service

Specify Delivery Location

Specify State

SaaSPaaSIaaS

Select the Cloud Service Model

Or Or

Or Or

Contract Start Date

Click Services Click

Professional Services

Click IT Services

Click Cloud Services

Select the Cloud service of your choice

Click Compute Services

Click Storage Services

Click Network Services

Click Security Services Or Or Or

A



Contract is generated successfully and order is

placed

Click Search

Specify values for service procurement parameters and search for Cloud services

Click ADD TO CART against L1 service

Add to Cart the L1 service or Compare L1 with other services

OrCompare L1 service with other services and

select service of your choice (up to Rs. 50,000)

by clicking on ADD TO CART

Click PROCEED TO

CHECKOUTClick CONFIRM

Click DIRECT PURCHASE

Start the checkout process

On Order Summary page, select the appropriate Billing Cycle

YearlyMonthlyWeekly Or Or

On Financial Details page, select the payment method

PFMS Offline

(Without Blocking)

PFMS Online (With

Blocking) Or

On Generate Contract page, review terms & conditions

Review Terms and Conditions Click Accept & Save

On Documents page, verify all the documents

Click Verify OTP Click Verify Enter OTP

A

Figure 1: Direct Purchase of Cloud Services



The detailed steps for procuring Cloud services under Direct Purchase mode is also provided below.

(i) Log in to the GeM portal using your own user id and password

(ii) Click on “Shop by Category” --> “Services” --> “Professional Services” --> “IT Services” -->

“Cloud Services”

(iii) Select the appropriate Cloud service as per your requirements from the available options

such as “Compute Services”, “Storage Services”, “Network Services”, “Security Services”, etc.

The service details and Service Level Agreement can be seen by clicking the links “Service

Details” and “Service Level Agreement” respectively

(iv) Specify the “Contract Start Day” and “Contract End Day”

(v) Click on the “SELECT CONSIGNEES” link and specify the “State”, “Delivery Location” and

“Number / Quantity / Unit” of the service required

(vi) Select the Cloud Deployment Model (“Type of Cloud”) from the three available options –

Public Cloud, Virtual Private Cloud and Government Community Cloud

(vii) Select the Cloud Service Model from the three available options – Infrastructure as a Service

(IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS) and Software as a Service (SaaS)

(viii) Specify the values for the service procurement parameters and search for the service offered

by MeitY Empaneled CSPs available on GeM

(ix) You can click on the “ADD TO CART” link against the service marked as “L1” or you can

compare services offered by various CSPs by clicking on “Add to Compare” checkbox against

the listed services. On the “Service Compare” panel shown at the bottom of the page, click on

“Compare” link to compare these services with the service marked as “L1” by the GeM

platform. Select the service of your choice (worth up to Rs. 25 Thousand) by clicking on the

“ADD TO CART” link against the service.

(x) Click on “PROCEED TO CHECKOUT” link. You will see a message “I confirm that the product/s and the specification selected in the cart meets my requirement”. Click on “CONFIRM” link and, then, click on “DIRECT PURCHASE” link.

(xi) You will be taken to the “Order Summary” page. On this page, select the appropriate “Billing

Cycle” from the three available options – “Weekly”, “Monthly” and “Yearly”. Click on

“CONTINUE”.

(xii) You will be taken to the “Financial Details” page. Select either “PFMS Online (With

Blocking)” or “PFMS Offline (Without Blocking)” as per your requirements. Specify

information for the following fields and click on “CONTINUE”.

a. Designation of official providing administration approval

b. Designation of official providing financial approval

c. IFD Diary No.

d. IFD Diary Date

e. Select DDO

f. Grant No.

g. Function Head (For Financial year 2018-2019)

h. Object Code



i. Category

j. Amount to be Blocked (click on “BLOCK” link if you had selected “PFMS Online

(With Blocking)” tab.

k. Financial approval (upload approval document)

(xiii) You will be taken to the “Generate Contract”. Review “Terms and Conditions” specified and

click on “Accept & Save”.

(xiv) You will be taken to the “Documents” page where you can see all the documents. Click on

“VERIFY” link. You will be shown an OTP Verification pop-up window. Enter OTP and click

on “VERIFY OTP” link.

(xv) The contract is generated successfully and order is placed.



4.2. L1 Purchase of Cloud Services

The L1 Purchase of Cloud services can be done by following the steps mentioned in the diagram below.



Cloud

Govt. Community

Cloud





Contract End Date





service


Specify State

SaaSPaaSIaaS


Or Or

Or Or

Click Search

Contract Start Date

Specify values for Service Procurement Parameters and search for Cloud services



Click IT Services







A



Contract is generated successfully and order is

placed

Select at least two other services to compare against the L1 service

Click PROCEED TO

CHECKOUTClick CONFIRM

Click DIRECT PURCHASE

Start the checkout process

On Order Summary page, select the appropriate Billing Cycle

YearlyMonthlyWeekly Or Or

On Financial Details page, select the payment method

PFMS Offline

(Without Blocking)

PFMS Online (With

Blocking) Or

On Generate Contract page, review terms & conditions

Review Terms and Conditions Click Accept & Save

On Documents page, verify all the documents

Click Verify OTP Click Verify Enter OTP

Click on Add to Compare checkbox against at least two

other services (non L1 services)

Click Compare link to compare selected services with

service marked as L1

Compare services offered by at least three different CSPs

Click ADD TO CART

link against the L1 service

If you select a non-L1 service and click ADD TO CART , you will get the option of BID and RA only.

A

Figure 2: L1 Purchase of Cloud Services



The detailed steps for procuring Cloud services under L1 Purchase mode is also provided below.





such as “Compute Services”, “Storage Services”, “Network Services”, “Security Services”, etc.

The service details and Service Level Agreement can be seen by clicking the links “Service

Details” and “Service Level Agreement” respectively

(iv) Specify the “Contract Start Day” and “Contract End Day”

(v) Click on the “SELECT CONSIGNEES” link and specify the “State”, “Delivery Location” and


(vi) Select the Cloud Deployment Model (“Type of Cloud”) from the three available options –


(vii) Select the Cloud Service Model from the three available options – Infrastructure as a Service


(viii) Specify the values for the service procurement parameters and search for the service offered


(ix) Since the value of the procurement is more than Rs. 25 Thousand, the “ADD TO CART” link

is not available at this point of time. You have to compare services offered by at least three

different CSPs by clicking on “Add to Compare” checkbox against these services. On the

“Service Compare” panel shown at the bottom of the page, click on “Compare” link to

compare these selected services with the service marked as “L1” by the GeM platform.

(x) Select the L1 service by clicking on the “ADD TO CART” link against the service (if you select

a non-L1 service and click “ADD TO CART”, you will get the option of BID and RA only)

(xi) Click on “PROCEED TO CHECKOUT” link. You will see a message “I confirm that the product/s and the specification selected in the cart meets my requirement”. Click on “CONFIRM” link and, then, click on “DIRECT PURCHASE” link.

(xii) You will be taken to the “Order Summary” page. On this page, select the appropriate “Billing

Cycle” from the three available options – “Weekly”, “Monthly” and “Yearly”. Click on

“CONTINUE”.

(xiii) You will be taken to the “Financial Details” page. Select either “PFMS Online (With

Blocking)” or “PFMS Offline (Without Blocking)” as per your requirements. Specify

information for the following fields and click on “CONTINUE”.

a. Designation of official providing administration approval

b. Designation of official providing financial approval

c. IFD Diary No.

d. IFD Diary Date

e. Select DDO

f. Grant No.



g. Function Head (For Financial year 2018-2019)

h. Object Code

i. Category

j. Amount to be Blocked (click on “BLOCK” link if you had selected “PFMS Online

(With Blocking)” tab.

k. Financial approval (upload approval document)

(xiv) You will be taken to the “Generate Contract”. Review “Terms and Conditions” specified and

click on “Accept & Save”.

(xv) You will be taken to the “Documents” page where you can see all the documents. Click on

“VERIFY” link. You will be shown an OTP Verification pop-up window. Enter OTP and click

on “VERIFY OTP” link.

(xvi) The contract is generated successfully and order is placed.



4.3. Bid Process for Cloud Services

The bids can be invited for the Cloud services by following the steps mentioned in the diagram below.



Cloud

Govt. Community

Cloud





Contract End Date





service


Specify State

Or Or

Contract Start Date



Click IT Services







Specify the Intent of Buying

Select BID under the Intent of Buying

A



SaaSPaaSIaaS


Or Or

Click Search


Click ADD TO CART against

the service of your choice

Select the service of your choice for which you want to receive the bids

Click PROCEED TO

CHECKOUTClick CONFIRM Click BID

Review the cart and start the checkout process

Click on Cloud service

selected previously

Make any changes in specifications, if required

Click on Save and then Continue

On the Specifications page

Verify the Consignee /

Reporting Officer details

Verify the number / quantity / unit of the

service required


On the Consignees/Reporting Officer page

Specify Bid End Date / Time

Specify Bid Life Cycle (From Publish Date)

Specify Bid Offer Validity (From End Date)

On the Details page

Select / deselect project experience requirement

Select / deselect annual turnover criteria

Specify Contract Duration

Specify if documents are required from the seller

Specify if you want to give exemption to verified

MSMEs


startups

Click on Generate Key , if key is not already

generated


A

B



Bid is successfully published

On Verify OTP & Publish page

Click Verify OTP

Click Verify & Publish page

Enter OTP

Specify additional terms and conditions including scope of work, SLA, etc.

On the EMD/e-PBG Details page

EMD Required?

YesSpecify Advisory Bank &

EMD Percentage (%) Yes

Specify Advisory Bank , ePBG Percentage (%)

and ePBG duration

ePBG Required?

No

On Splitting page

Split the bid among L1, L2 and L3 sellers by specifying the Split % , if applicable

On T&C page

Click Submit

Check I agree to the Terms & Conditions

of GeM

B

Figure 3: Bid process for Cloud services

The detailed steps for conducting bid process for Cloud services is also provided below.





such as “Compute Services”, “Storage Services”, “Network Services”, “Security Services”,

etc. The service details and Service Level Agreement can be seen by clicking the links

“Service Details” and “Service Level Agreement” respectively

(iv) Select the “BID” option under the “Intent of Buying”

(v) Specify the “Contract Start Day” and “ Contract End Day”



(vi) Click on the “SELECT CONSIGNEES” link and specify the “State”, “Delivery Location” and


(vii) Select the Cloud Deployment Model (“Type of Cloud”) from the three available options –


(viii) Select the Cloud Service Model from the three available options – Infrastructure as a Service


(ix) Specify the values for the service procurement parameters and search for the service offered


(x) Select the service of your choice by clicking on the “ADD TO CART” link.

(xi) Review the “SHOPPING CART”. If details specified by you are final, click on “PROCEED TO

CHECKOUT”.

(xii) You will see a message “I confirm that the product/s and the specification selected in the

cart meets my requirement”. Click on “CONFIRM” link and, then, click on “BID” link.

(xiii) For the message “Are you sure you want to proceed with creating the BID?”, click “OK”.

(xiv) You will be taken to the “1. Specifications” page. Click on the cloud service that you had

selected previously and make any changes in the specification, if you desire. Click “Save”

and, then, click “Continue”.

(xv) You will be taken to the “2. Consignees/Reporting Officer” page. Verify the Consignee /

Reporting Officer details and number of instances / units of the service required. Click

“Save” and, then, click “Continue”.

(xvi) You will be taken to the “3. Details” page. Please specify following.

a) Bid End Date / Time

b) Bid Life Cycle (From Publish Date)

c) Bid Offer Validity (From End Date)

d) Contract Duration

(xvii) Under “Participant Eligibility Criterion” subsection, please check / uncheck following two

criteria depending on your project’s requirements.

a) Annual turnover should be greater than or equal to 30% of the bid value

b) Project experience should be validated

(xviii) Under “Participant Eligibility Criterion” subsection itself, please specify Yes / No depending

on your project’s requirements.

a) Document Required From Seller

(i) If “Yes” is selected, you can seek following five categories of documents

/ certificates from the Seller – Experience with Government, Annual

Turnover, Certificate (Requested in ATC), OEM Authorization

Certificate and OEM Annual Turnover



b) Do You Want To Give Exemption To Verified MSE For Years Of Experience

With Government/Turnover/Project Experience?

c) Do You Want To Give Exemption To Verified Startups For Years Of

Experience And Turnover?

(xix) Click on “Generate Key” link to generate the key pair. Click “Save” and, then, click

“Continue”.

(xx) You will be taken to the “4. EMD/ePBG Details” page where you may specify “Advisory

Bank” and “EMD Percentage (%)” for the EMD if bid value is greater than 25 Lakhs. For

ePBG, you may specify “Advisory Bank”, “EPBG Percentage (%)” and “Duration of EPBG

Required (Months)” if the bid value is greater than 5 Lakhs. Click “Save” and, then, click

“Continue”.

(xxi) You will be taken to the “5. Splitting” page. Split the bid among L1, L2 and L3 sellers by

specifying the “Split %”, if applicable.

(xxii) You will be taken to the “6. T&C” page. Here you can specify additional terms and

conditions including scope of work, SLAs or any other requirements. After specifying all

relevant terms and conditions, click on “Submit” link. It will show a message “Bid/RA

clauses saved successfully”. Click “Ok”.

(xxiii) You will be taken to the “7. Verify OTP & Publish” page. Check “I agree to the Terms and

Conditions of GeM” and click on “Verify OTP and Publish”. Enter the OTP received on

your registered mobile number and click “Verify”. The bid is successfully published.

The government organization can choose to go for “RA after the Bid” if the government organization is

not satisfied with the L1 Price. The Bid financial evaluation reveals only the L1 price without revealing

the identity of the L1 CSP/MSP until the government organization chooses between the option of "RA"

or “Open and Award” the Bid. CSP/MSP name with price is disclosed only when the government

organization chooses to “Open and Award” the Bid.



4.4. Reverse Auction for Cloud Services

The Reverse Auction for Cloud services can be done by following the steps mentioned in the diagram

below.



Cloud

Govt. Community

Cloud





Contract End Date





service


Specify State

Or Or

Contract Start Date



Click IT Services







Specify the Intent of Buying

Select BID under the Intent of Buying

A



SaaSPaaSIaaS


Or Or

Click Search


Click ADD TO CART against

the service of your choice

Select the service of your choice for which you want to conduct Reverse Auction

Click PROCEED TO

CHECKOUTClick CONFIRM Click RA

Review the cart and start the checkout process

Click on Cloud service

selected previously

Make any changes in specifications, if required


On the Specifications page

Verify the Consignee /

Reporting Officer details

Verify the number / quantity / unit of the

service required


On the Consignees/Reporting Officer page

A

B



RA is successfully published

On Verify OTP & Publish page

Click Verify OTP

Click Verify & Publish page

Enter OTP

Specify RA End Date / Time

Specify RA Life Cycle (From Publish Date)

Specify RA Offer Validity (From End Date)

On the Details page

Specify additional terms and conditions including scope of work, SLA, etc.

Select / deselect project experience requirement

Select / deselect annual turnover criteria

Specify Contract Duration

Specify if documents are required from the seller


MSMEs


startups

Click on Generate Key , if key is not already

generated


On the EMD/e-PBG Details page

EMD Required?

YesSpecify Advisory Bank &

EMD Percentage (%) Yes

Specify Advisory Bank , ePBG Percentage (%)

and ePBG duration

ePBG Required?

No

On T&C page

Click Submit

Check I agree to the Terms & Conditions

of GeM

B

Figure 4: Reverse Auction for Cloud services



The detailed steps for Reverse Auction of the Cloud services on GeM platform is also provided below.





such as “Compute Services”, “Storage Services”, “Network Services”, “Security Services”,

etc. The service details and Service Level Agreement can be seen by clicking the links

“Service Details” and “Service Level Agreement” respectively

(iv) Select the “BID” option under the “Intent of Buying”

(v) Specify the “Contract Start Day” and “ Contract End Day”

(vi) Click on the “SELECT CONSIGNEES” link and specify the “State”, “Delivery Location” and


(vii) Select the Cloud Deployment Model (“Type of Cloud”) from the three available options –


(viii) Select the Cloud Service Model from the three available options – Infrastructure as a Service


(ix) Specify the values for the service procurement parameters and search for the service offered


(x) Select the service of your choice by clicking on the “ADD TO CART” link.

(xi) Review the “SHOPPING CART”. If details specified by you are final, click on “PROCEED TO

CHECKOUT”.

(xii) You will see a message “I confirm that the product/s and the specification selected in the

cart meets my requirement”. Click on “CONFIRM” link and, then, click on “RA” link for

reverse auction.

(xiii) For the message “Are you sure you want to proceed with creating the BID?”, click “OK”.

(xiv) You will be taken to the “1. Specifications” page. Click on the cloud service that you had

selected previously and make any changes in the specification, if you desire. Click “Save”

and, then, click “Continue”.

(xv) You will be taken to the “2. Consignees/Reporting Officer” page. Verify the Consignee /

Reporting Officer details and number of instances / units of the service required. Click

“Save” and, then, click “Continue”.

(xvi) You will be taken to the “3. Details” page. Please specify following.

a) RA End Date / Time

b) RA Life Cycle (From Publish Date)

c) RA Offer Validity (From End Date)

d) Contract Duration



(xvii) Under “Participant Eligibility Criterion” subsection, please check / uncheck following two

criteria depending on your project’s requirements.

a) Annual turnover should be greater than or equal to 30% of the bid value

b) Project experience should be validated

(xviii) Under “Participant Eligibility Criterion” subsection itself, please specify Yes / No for the

following requirements depending on your project’s requirements.

a) “Document Required From Seller”

(i) If “Yes” is selected, you can seek following five categories of documents

/ certificates from the Seller – Experience with Government, Annual

Turnover, Certificate (Requested in ATC), OEM Authorization

Certificate and OEM Annual Turnover

b) “Do You Want To Give Exemption To Verified MSE For Years Of Experience

With Government/Turnover/Project Experience?”

c) “Do You Want To Give Exemption To Verified Startups For Years Of

Experience And Turnover?”

(xix) Click on “Generate Key” link to generate the key pair. Click “Save” and, then, click

“Continue”.

(xx) You will be taken to the “4. EMD/ePBG Details” page where you may specify “Advisory

Bank” and “EMD Percentage (%)” for the EMD if bid value is greater than Rs. 25 Lakhs.

For ePBG, you may specify “Advisory Bank”, “EPBG Percentage (%)” and “Duration of

EPBG Required (Months)” if the bid value is greater than Rs. 5 Lakhs. Click “Save” and,

then, click “Continue”.

(xxi) You will be taken to the “6. T&C” page. Here you can specify additional terms and

conditions including scope of work, SLAs or any other requirements. After specifying all

relevant terms and conditions, click on “Submit” link. It will show a message “Bid/RA

clauses saved successfully”. Click “Ok”.

(xxii) You will be taken to the “7. Verify OTP & Publish” page. Check “I agree to the Terms and

Conditions of GeM” and click on “Verify OTP and Publish”. Enter the OTP received on

your registered mobile number and click “Verify”. The RA is successfully published.



5. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

The Government eMarketplace (GeM) has a comprehensive set of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

available on its platform. These FAQs can be seen by visiting the URL https://gem.gov.in/userFaqs .

Some of the most relevant FAQs related to the procurement of Cloud services have also been

reproduced below.

5.1. FAQs - Direct Purchase

1. What is Direct Purchase?

Answer Direct Purchase enables a buyer to buy Cloud services for up to Rs. 25,000 without

comparison, through any of the available suppliers on GeM, meeting the requisite quality,

specification and delivery period.

2. Where can a buyer select consignee location?

Answer Under "Administrative filter" section, click on "Select Consignee" and select the consignee

details.

3. For how long does a service remain in the cart after its addition?

Answer A service remains in the cart for 10 days, after its addition.

4. What tools are available on GeM to ensure Price reasonability?

Answer Procurement decision including price is prerogative and responsibility of buyer. GeM

provides a robust decision support system for ensuring price reasonableness for buyer.

Buyer has a provision for viewing price of services with same specs from different

marketplaces. Buyer can also view price trends basis the historical transaction of that

service on GeM.

5. Why am I not able to view PAO/DDO in my drop down list while creating a

contract?

Answer You are not able to view PAO/DDO in your drop down list while creating contract because

the primary user has not created PAO/DDO.

6. Is it possible for a buyer to edit the delivery days?

Answer Yes. It is possible for a buyer to edit the delivery days. Number of days is from 1 to 15 days.

7. Is it mandatory for a buyer to verify contract through OTP?

Answer Yes. It is mandatory for a buyer to verify a contract through OTP.

https://gem.gov.in/userFaqs



5.2. FAQs – L1 Purchase

1. What is L1 purchase?

Answer

L1 purchase enables direct purchase for order values between Rs. 25,000 and Rs.

5,00,000 by way of comparison between at least three different Cloud Service Providers

or three Managed Service Providers offering services of three different Cloud Service

Providers on GeM, who meet the buyer’s requisite quality, quantity, specifications and

delivery period.

2. What is a comparison sheet and from where can a buyer download it?

Answer

For L1 purchase, the buyers need to compare three OEMs (3 CSPs or 3 MSPs offering

Cloud services of 3 different CSPs) and the comparison sheet reflects the specifications,

price, etc. Comparison sheet can be downloaded from the cart.

3. How many OEMs does a buyer need to compare for L1 purchase?

Answer A buyer must compare at least three OEMs to proceed for L1 purchase.

4. If my payment mode is PFMS, is it mandatory to enter the IFD diary number?

Answer Yes. It is mandatory to enter the IFD diary number and date if your payment mode is

PFMS.

5. Why am I not able to view PAO/DDO in my drop down list while creating a

contract?

Answer You are not able to view PAO/DDO in your drop down list while creating contract because

the primary user has not created PAO/DDO.



5.3. FAQs – Bid Process

1. What is Intent of Bid?

Answer

Buyer can choose "Intent of Bid" to create a bid without comparison of Cloud services.

The buyer will be able to browse through all the Cloud services in the market (without

any restriction of quantity or State).

2. Till when a Buyer can extend an Ongoing Bid?

Answer Buyer can extend the Bid End Date till the 69th day of Bid Life Cycle. Bid Life Cycle is

default 90 days from Bid Start Date.

3. What is Bid Life Cycle?

Answer

Bid Life Cycle is the period within which a buyer has to complete the entire life cycle i.e.

technical evaluation, financial evaluation and order creation of Bid process. By default, it

is 90 days from the date of Bid publication.

4. How can a buyer extend Bid Life Cycle?

Answer Buyer cannot extend Bid Life Cycle. However, the buyer can raise a request with GeM

competent authority for extension of Bid Life Cycle.

5. What is Bid Offer Validity?

Answer Bid Offer Validity is the period during which seller’s offer is valid from the Bid End Date.

The buyer needs to award the Order within the Bid Offer Validity Period.

6. Can a buyer extend Bid Offer Validity?

Answer Yes, during Financial Evaluation, buyer can take an offline consent from the L1 seller(s)

and extend Bid Offer Validity up to 90 days (i.e. Bid Life Cycle).

7. How is Bid Offer Validity different from Bid Life-Cycle?

Answer Bid Offer Validity commences from Bid End Date whereas Bid Life Cycle commences

from Bid Start/Publish Date.

8. Can buyer mention Inspection Clause during bid creation?

Answer Yes, buyers can select the Inspection Clause while creating bid under Buyer Specific

Additional Terms & Conditions.

9. Can buyer give exemption for turnover and experience to startup in bid?



Answer

If the buyer selects “Start-up exemption for Years of Experience and Annual Turnover”

as 'Yes' during bid creation, only then the exemption is applicable. The same is reflected

in bid document.

10. If only one seller has qualified in technical evaluation, can buyer proceed

with awarding of Bid?

Answer It is at buyer’s discretion to award the bid even if only one seller has qualified in technical

evaluation

11. Can buyer ask for Earnest Money Deposit (EMD) in Bid?

Answer Yes, buyer can opt for EMD for bids whose estimated bid value is above Rs. 25 Lakhs.

12. Can buyer ask for Electronic Performance Bank Guarantee (ePBG) in Bid?

Answer Yes, buyer can opt for ePBG for bids whose estimated bid value is above Rs. 30 Lakhs.

13. Why ePBG is allowed only for bid value greater than Rs. 30 lakhs?

Answer

The procurement made through GeM are governed by GFR rule 149 and GeM Terms and

Conditions. The administrative cost of PBG is very high / disproportionate to value of

BG, and leads to increase in cost of procurement. Hence, GeM has prescribed PBG for

those Bids whose estimated Bid value is above Rs. 30 Lakhs.

14. How many consignees can be uploaded through the excel template?

Answer The buyer can upload consignees as per the requirement. These consignees should be

registered on GeM which are then required to be mapped prior to awarding Bid.

15. Can I add more consignees during the creation of Bid?

Answer

Yes, you can add more consignees during the creation of Bid by uploading excel sheet

under the consignee list. Later, unregistered consignees need to be registered by the

primary user and then mapped by the buyer.

16. Is it possible to change the quantity of service and delivery days while

creating a Bid?

Answer Yes. It is possible to change the quantity of service and delivery days during the creation

of Bid under consignees.

17. What are the additional documents a buyer can demand from the seller for

Bid participation?



Answer

A buyer can demand for documents such as Experience Certificate with Government,

Turnover Certificate, MSME Registration Certificate, Certificates as per Additional

Terms & Conditions and OEM Authorization Certificate.

18, Can a buyer edit "Buyer Specific Terms and Conditions" post publishing the

Bid?

Answer

Yes, a buyer can edit "Buyer Specific Additional Terms and Conditions" at any time, three

days prior to the Bid End Date, provided no sellers have participated in the Bid. A

corrigendum will be issued for the revision and will override the previous version of

"Buyer Specific Terms and Conditions" mentioned in the Bid document.

19.

The offer received in Bid/RA is significantly higher than earlier procurement

made through GeM for similar/same service. Can the prices be negotiated

with L-1 to seek reduction in price?

Answer

As per CVC guidelines order No.005/CRD/012 dated the 3rd March, 2007 (Circular No.

4/3/07), there should be no post-tender negotiations with L-1, except in certain

exceptional situations. Such exceptional situations would include, procurement of

proprietary items, items with limited sources of supply and items where there is suspicion

of a cartel formation.

The justification and details of such negotiations should be duly recorded and

documented without any loss of time. As per Rule 149 of GFR-2017, the reasonableness

of the prices is to be assessed by the buyer before placement of contract on GeM. The

buyer may take a final decision in terms of the GFR provisions and CVC guidelines. After

conducting negotiations with L-1 bidder by the buyer, the same be intimated to GeM

along with final negotiated price which will be amended in the system by the GeM team.

The responsibility for reasonableness of prices will rest with the buyer only.

20. If a Bid has ended, can the buyer extend the Bid?

Answer If number of total participation in Bid is up to 2, Buyer has option to either extend the

Bid or Open Technical Bid.

21. How can I request L2 /L3 Seller(s) to match L1 Price in Split Bid?

Answer Buyer can click on 'Request for L1 Price Match' with L2/L3 sellers. The price match is

completed within 3 days’ time frame from the request date.

22. In split Bid, If L2 & L3 sellers do not match L1 price, can the remaining

quantity be awarded to L1 seller?

Answer Yes, the remaining quantity can be awarded to L1 seller.

23. Is it possible to edit a Consignee’s Receipt cum Acceptance Certificate

(CRAC) after it is generated?



Answer No, there is no option to edit CRAC after it is confirmed.

24. Only Bid option is appearing after I add a service to the cart. Why am I not

able to view L1 or Direct Purchase?

Answer

This may be due to two reasons:

1. Your service may be worth more than Rs. 25,000 and less than 5 lakhs and you may

have not carted L1 services.

2. Your cart value is above 5 lakhs.

25. How many services can be bunched together at a time?

Answer

There is no specific limit to the number of services a buyer can bunch at a time. It depends

on the requirement of the buyer. Services are bunched based on the relevance of the

categories.

26. Is it possible for the user to modify the "Item Specification" in the Bid

process?

Answer No. The buyer cannot modify "Item Specification" in the Bid process as they are auto

filled, based on the service specification available in the market.

27. Can a buyer split the Bid among multiple sellers?

Answer Yes. The buyer can do so by selecting "Splitting" and applying “Split %” at the time of Bid

creation. The Bid order can be split among L1, L2, L3 sellers basis the Split %.

28. Can buyer extend the Bid/RA if number of participation is less than 3?

Answer Yes. The buyer can extend the Bid/ RA in case number of participation is less than 3. The

extension is possible before opening the technical bid.

29.

What needs to be done if there are more than one L1 in bid and buyer has

proceeded with RA? On opening the RA, "no participation found" message is

appearing.

Answer In such cases, buyer always has a provision to cancel the Bid/RA and re-initiate a new

Bid.

30. At which stage, after opening a Bid, can a buyer convert it to a RA?

Answer After opening a financial Bid, two options are available for a buyer - "Open and Award"

and "Proceed to RA". On clicking "Proceed to RA" Bid can be converted to RA.

31. Can a buyer return to a Bid and opt for creation of an order, after he/she has

already published the RA?



Answer No. After publishing the RA, the buyer will not be able to create an order before RA

completion.

32. Can a Bid with a single participant be changed to RA?

Answer No. A Bid with a single participant cannot be converted to RA. There should be at least

two Bidders for competing in Bid to RA.

33. Can technically disqualified sellers participate in Bid to RA?

Answer No. Only those sellers who are technically qualified for a particular Bid are eligible to

participate in Bid to RA.

34. What is Bid to RA auto extension?

Answer

If a seller participates in the last 15 minutes of RA end time, the system will auto extend

RA by 15 minutes. The number of extensions will be as per the buyer’s selection i.e. a

minimum of 3 times. Any RA price submission after the RA end time will not be recorded.



5.4. FAQs – Reverse Auction

1. In case of a single participation in RA, can buyer proceed with order

creation?

Answer Yes. Single participation in RA is valid and buyer can proceed with the order creation.

2. What is RA Offer Validity (from End date)?

Answer RA Offer Validity is the period during which seller offer is valid from the RA End Date.

The buyer needs to award the Order within the RA Offer Validity Period.

3. How is the benchmark price determined for RA?

Answer

The price of the service selected by the buyer from the market at the time of RA creation

is set as benchmark for the RA. Buyers are suggested to select the most appropriate

service for RA creation.

4. What is the duration of technical offering in RA?

Answer The duration of technical offering in RA is between 10 and 21 days.

5. What is the duration of financial offering in RA?

Answer The duration of financial offering in RA is between 2 and 5 days.

6. How many extensions are allowed to the buyer in financial offering of RA?

Answer Maximum three manual extensions are allowed by the system in financial offering and a

single extension cannot be of more than 2 days.

7. What if the RA option is not visible on checkout page?

Answer For services in which a minimum price capping has been configured, RA option will not

be available since there is no scope for further price reduction.

8. Is splitting available in RA?

Answer No. Splitting is currently not available in RA. Splitting option is only available in Bid.

9. Is it possible to extend RA?

Answer Yes. A buyer has the option to extend RA. It can be extended further provided the Bid

End Date is within Bid Life Cycle.



10. What is RA auto extension?

Answer

If a seller participates in the last 15 minutes of RA End Time, the system will auto extend

RA by 15 minutes. The number of extensions will be as per the buyer’s selection i.e. a

minimum of 3 times. Any RA price submission after the RA End Time will not be

recorded.



5.5. FAQs – Other

1.

How do I ensure that I get the additional Cloud services from the same Cloud

Service Provider which I have been using for developing / hosting my

application(s)?

Answer

If a government organization has procured some Cloud services from a MeitY Empaneled

Cloud Service Provider offering its services on the GeM platform and it wants to procure

additional Cloud services from the same Cloud Service Provider, it can do so by exercising

the “PAC” or “Proprietary Article Certificate” route available on GeM which allows

purchasing of a particular make or model. The Proprietary Article Certificate is a

certificate signed by a competent authority which the government organization needs to

provide.

2. What principles should I keep in mind while deciding to procure Cloud

services through GeM platform?

Answer

During the procurement, sizing of the Cloud services in a right manner plays an important role. While conducting the IT infrastructure sizing for an application, you should keep following principles in mind:

(i) The sizing should reflect the future growth requirements of the IT project.

(ii) The budget allocation towards Cloud component of the application should take into account a headroom of about 20% to 30%.

(iii) The government organization should also discover the prices for scale up and

scale down requirements so as to cater future requirements.

3. How should I capture the security requirements in the RFP/ToR document

that I issue to CSP/MSP?

Answer

The government organization should clearly specify the individual Cloud security

services that it wants to avail from the CSP / MSP instead of specifying security

requirements in very generic terms. The mentioning of individual Cloud security services

helps in discovering their prices and doing a cost benefit analysis with respect to other

Cloud components.

4 What should be my approach for taking Disaster Recovery services in Cloud?

Answer

You should allocate minimum resources/smaller instances in Cloud which are sufficient

to keep the disaster recovery site active as per your requirements and ensure that

CSP/MSP is able to scale up resources/instances in the disaster recovery site in case of

actual disaster striking the DC (main) site.

5 What should be the contract duration with CSP/MSP?

Answer The contract duration essentially varies from project to project. However, for

development, test, PoC kind of environments and workloads, the contract duration may



be kept short. The contract duration will be longer for actual production workloads,

depending on the project life cycle.

6 While migrating from on-premise environment to Cloud environment,

should I keep the same compute, memory and storage capacity?

Answer

The on-premises infrastructures are planned keeping the peak load requirements for the

complete life cycle of the project. However, this should not be the case in the Cloud setup

if you want to reap the cost benefit offered by the Cloud. In Cloud, you should start small

which can cater to the normal load. However, you must also ensure that you discover the

prices for scale up, meeting the peak load requirements and falling within the limits

specified by the GFR.

7 What type of instances are suitable for test, development, pre-production

and production environments?

Answer

For production workloads, which are critical and compute intensive, you may opt for

instances which have latest CPUs and “Physical Core to vCPU” ratio of 1:1 /1:2. For all

other environments, you may go with the instances having old CPUs and lower “Physical

Core to vCPU” ratio. However, while selecting the instances, you should take an informed

decision specifically meeting your project requirements.